Book 79, 2023

Midnight Magic by Jo-Ann Carson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I finished Midnight Magic by Jo-Ann Carson last night. It's the first in her "Ghost & Abby" mystery series, and it's also a spinoff from another story of hers.

Abby is a widowed mother of three young children, and she works as a janitor in a haunted house/tea room. She's also a wannabe detective. Abby is excited when she gets her first client. The woman wants Abby to find a stash of diamonds in the haunted mansion she's inherited. For the money the woman is offering, Abby is more than willing, However, once in the house she discovers a draugr (a vampiric creature), and Abby knows she's going to need a little help. Fortunately, her "boyfriend" is a thousand-year old Viking ghost, Eric. What Abby doesn't know is that Eric is dealing with his own issues. They'll need to work together if they're going to banish the draugr and find the diamonds.

One would think this story would be right up my alley. I like paranormal romance, and I love paranormal mysteries, but I was just very meh about the whole thing. Characters were not fleshed out (pardon the pun), and the narrative was choppy. Abby and Eric both did foolish, dangerous things. Plus, if she loves Eric so much, why did Abby get all a'twitter when a hunky mortal man arrived on the scene?

Favorite lines:
♦ The day was gloomier than a Stephen King nightmare.
♦ Even good witches cackled in dark moments.
♦ "Just what I need. One more item on my to-do list. Buy diapers, fix broken toys, boil macaroni, and stuff a dead corpse in the dirt."
♦ I hadn't slept much. Worrying about guardian ghosts, warlocks, spiders and my electric bill does that to me. And spiders. I couldn't forget the spiders.

This should have been my cup of tea, but it wasn't. Average score of three.